What's In A Name?
by Verie
Summary: Ne.. just a simple little fic that I had to type up or else it would plague me all night ^_^; um.. hard to explain, just read it, it's short.


  


What's In A Name?   
  
  
  
  


Crawford stared out the window, not really seeing the sky scrapers outside their apartment. 

_Funny..._ He thought, _how despite how much you may hate your home town, you always miss it when you've left._ He smirked in a bemused manner. 

"Homesick, Braddie?" Schuldich asked, Crawford almost jumped but managed to remain composed. 

_Am I projecting? How did he know...?_ Crawford wondered, unhappy that the German surely must have read his thoughts. 

"Don't be so surprised. I know the look of someone thinking about home." Schuldich smirked, taking a seat next to Crawford. 

"How observant of you." Crawford responded. 

"That and y'know... the window faces west and you're from America an' all...." 

"In other words, it was a wild guess?" Crawford interrupted. 

"You could say that. But I like the other version more, it makes me seem smarter." Schuldich said. 

"Not really, since this window faces East." Crawford said in a bemused manner. 

"Really?" Schuldich asked in surprised. 

"Really." Crawford replied. 

"I had no idea. Thanks for the info, Bradley." Schuldich said. 

"Hn. Don't call me that." Crawford mumbled. 

"Why not?" Schuldich asked. 

"It's not my name." 

"What d'you mean it's not your name? Your name's Bradley Crawford, right?" Schuldich asked. 

"No. It's not." Crawford said. 

".... Just Brad Crawford, then?" 

"No." 

"Crawford is right, though?" Schuldich asked in confusion. 

"Yes, my last name is Crawford. But my first name is neither Bradley or Brad." The American said. 

"So then what is it???" Schuldich asked. 

"You have no reason to know." Crawford said. 

"'Course I do. What'm I supposed to call you?" Schuldich asked. 

"Crawford. That's what I've been telling you to call me ever since we first met." 

"Yeah, but you have to have a first name." Schuldich said. 

"I do, but I'm not going to tell you." Crawford said, getting up from his seat by the window. 

"I'll find out, y'know." Schuldich said. 

"Don't waste your time." Crawford replied, walking down the hall to his office. 

_If there's one thing you need to learn, Crawford, it's that when I want to know something, I won't stop until I find it out._ Schuldich smirked and walked off to find Nagi. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"So you can find it?" Schuldich asked hopefully. 

"Maybe. If it's in the records, but I have to know where Crawford lived first." Nagi replied. 

"It was California, wasn't it?" Schuldich asked. 

The boy frowned. "California is a big state. Don't we have a city?" He asked. 

"Nope, the bastard never told me. Just be happy I know the state, jah?" Schuldich replied. 

"Do you know how many records I'll have to go through?!" Nagi demanded. 

"That's not my problem, now is it?" Schuldich asked, the boy glared at him. "Anyhow, it can't be that big, can it?" He added. 

"California is the third largest state in America, if I recall correctly." Nagi said bluntly. 

"You know that doesn't help me, Nags. I don't know much about America. I don't care to, either." Schuldich said. 

"I can't believe you're making me do this... can't you just ask Crawford?" Nagi asked, staring at the computer screen in a depressed manner. So many files... 

"I already did, he won't tell me." Schuldich said. 

"Then there's a reason he doesn't want you to know." 

"Yes well, we'll deal with that when we get there, ne?" Schuldich replied. 

"You should respect Crawford's wishes." Nagi said. 

"If you do this, I won't tell Crawford about the time when you 'accidentally' blew up his can of coffee." Schuldich said. 

"That was your fault!" Nagi exclaimed. 

"Yes well... he won't know that, will he?" Schuldich smirked. Nagi glared at him, but then turned his attention back to the computer screen. 

"We don't even know that his records are still on file..." He frowned. 

"We'll just have to find out, jah? And don't take too long, I'm not a patient person." Schuldich said, walking out of the room. 

"That's easy for you to say." Nagi mumbled, clicking some random files. 

~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Schuldich sat down across from Crawford early one morning a few weeks later. 

"Good morning, Bradford." Schuldich smirked, Crawford put down his newspaper. 

"You figured it out." He said bluntly. 

"I never give up when I want to know something, Braddie." Schuldich grinned. 

"Hn." 

"You said your name didn't have 'Brad' in it." Schuldich said. 

"I never said that. I said it wasn't 'Bradley' and I said it wasn't 'Brad,' I never mentioned the entire absence of 'Brad.'" Crawford replied. 

Schuldich yawned. "Bradford Crawford, eh?" He snickered. 

"Shut up." Crawford mumbled. 

"Hey, you can always change your name, y'know." Schuldich said. 

"That would be disrespectful to my parents." 

"You haven't even talked to them for five years, isn't that disrespectful?" Schuldich asked. 

"They're dead." Crawford responded. 

"Oh. Well, you could visit their graves then, ne? We can afford a trip to Ameria, after all." Schuldich said. 

"I don't know where they're buried." Crawford said. 

"Tch. That's sad. Even I know where my parents are buried." 

"When did they die?" Crawford asked. 

"Nyeh... a year ago or something. They're back in Berlin." Schuldich replied. 

"Hn. I was four when my parents died." Crawford stared at the paper blankly. 

"I'm sorry to hear that. What about the rest of your family, then? Couldn't you ask one of them?" Schuldich asked. 

"They're dead to. They died in a fire during preparation for a family reunion." Crawford said. 

"Oh. Maybe we could look it up or something, ne?" Schuldich suggested. 

"Maybe." Crawford took a sip of his coffee. "What about you?" He asked. 

"Eh?" 

"You. Schuldich can't be your real name, right?" Crawford asked. 

Schuldich smirked. "My parents were sadistic." 

"I see. What about your last name, then?" 

"I don't have one." Schuldich replied. 

"You have to have a last name." 

"I don't. A last name is a family name, and I have no family." Schuldich responded. 

"Ah. So it's more like you've disowned your name, then?" Crawford asked. 

"Something like that." Schuldich grinned. 

"And Farfarello?" 

"What about 'im?" Schuldich asked. 

"He doesn't seem to have a last name, either." Crawford pointed out. 

"Good point. Maybe that's why we're what we are. We can blame our parents, they screwed us up by naming us stupid things." 

Crawford snickered slightly. "Naoe doesn't seem to have anything wrong with his name." He pointed out. 

"Yeah, and he's the least screwed up out of the four us, ne? Anyhow, now that we've brought it up, it'll probably turn out that Nagi isn't his real name or somethin'." Schuldich said. 

"Maybe." Crawford replied. 

"Hey, Crawford?" 

"Yes?" 

"... ... Can I still call you Bradley?" Schuldich asked. 

"No." 

"Ok, Bradley." Schuldich grinned and got up from his seat and walked to the living room. 

************* 

Verie: Don't ask me why I wrote this... it's one of those ideas that come to you and won't go away until you write them. The concept of Brad's name being "Bradford" is actually an old idea, which I suppose would be acredited to my mom, who has a friend named Brad. Only his real name is "Bradford." And the concept of Brad's name being "Bradford Crawford" was sadistically amusing. I'm not certain why I started thinking about it now, a couple months later, but nyeh... it happened. Then the fic started writing itself. It's funny how the words come easiest in your head, and then you can't remember them when you sit down >.; anyhow.. yes, when the concept of "Bradford" first came to me, I intended it to be a humor fic. And now I've written this, and I think it would probably still be a better concept for a humor fic. Oh well. I could still do it, ne? I think I'll stick with calling Crawford "Bradley" though. And thus we are left to wonder what Farf's last name is (we all know his first name was originally "Jei"... but we don't know anything about his last name, ne?). Anyhow... I'm gonna shut up now and go to sleep now that I've finally got this fic out of my head.   



End file.
